In Search of the Edge
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
IN SEARCH OF THE EDGE is a comprehensive documentary proving, fairly conclusively, that the earth is flat!
Humorous, thought-provoking, and at once both absurdist and matter of fact, it presents a carefully constructed argument from a definite, well-researched 'flat-earth' point of view, while dismissing the 'global earth' doctrine as little more than an elaborate hoax.
The film is comprised of the conventional documentary mix of elements, including interviews with experts, stock footage, still photographs and animation, and is woven together with the story of Andrea Barns, a Canadian woman who devoted her life to convincing the world that the earth is flat.
This is an essential lesson in media literacy for a generation plugged into television. Provoke critical thinking in your students and help them to become aware of the devices used in documentary media; the history of scientific paradigms; and their own willingness to take things at face value.
'An amusing and a stimulating thinking exercise for students eager to question how they know what they think they know. Recommended.' Landers Film and Video Reviews
'Well done in all respects...should be well received in science classrooms. It will hold students' interest and provoke some lively discussion. Teachers wishing to enliven Earth science classes will find the program useful...recommended for purchase.' **** Video Rating Guide for Libraries
Citation
Main credits
								Barrie, Scott (film director)
Marsh, Robert (narrator)
							
Other credits
Camera, Jim Aqulla; music, Davis Trevis; animation, Larry Jacobs.
Distributor subjects
Critical Thinking ; Earth Science; Geography; History; Humanities; Humor; Literature ; Media Literacy; Physical Science; Psychology; Science; Scientific MethodKeywords
WEBVTT
 
 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.999
 [sil.]
 
 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:09.999
 Antarctica, frigid, barren,
 
 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:14.999
 seemingly endless. On December 3rd, 1961,
 
 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:19.999
 a 63-year-old women by the
 name of Andrea Barnes
 
 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:24.999
 set off single handedly across this
 barrier of ice. On December 18th,
 
 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:29.999
 the weather turned against her. A week later
 on Christmas day, radio contact was lost.
 
 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:34.999
 Ms. Barnes was never seen again.
 
 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:39.999
 This was to be the final leg in a journey that had
 started for her nearly half a century before,
 
 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:44.999
 a journey ending in apparent failure.
 She had not succeeded
 
 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:50.000
 in proving to the world
 that the earth is flat.
 
 00:00:55.000 --> 00:01:00.000
 It has a flat top and it shaped like a top.
 
 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:09.999
 There\'s a certain amount of depth here because there
 must be a vertical access on which it rotates
 
 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:14.999
 and the stability of the
 mass would indicate that
 
 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:19.999
 uh… there must be some depth or wobble
 
 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:24.999
 could very easy occur and
 we know that there is none.
 
 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:29.999
 It\'s a commonly held misconception that the Earth
 is a spherical object that revolve around the sun,
 
 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:34.999
 but the fact is of course that the Earth is a
 circular dish surrounded by a barrier of ice
 
 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:39.999
 that explore like Andrea Barnes had been
 attempting to penetrate for centuries.
 
 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:44.999
 [music]
 
 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:49.999
 In 1585, a mid storm of controversy
 and undercover of darkness,
 
 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:54.999
 an adventurer by the name of Afton Marcella
 stole out of London in hopes of being the first
 
 00:01:55.000 --> 00:01:59.999
 to reach the Edge of the Earth.
 But he was unprepared
 
 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:04.999
 for the extreme conditions. His crew
 was played by scurvy and frostbite,
 
 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:09.999
 food supplies ran low. Marcella
 was forced to turn back
 
 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:14.999
 before setting foot on Antarctica,
 
 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:19.999
 so ended the first recorded expedition. But the
 controversy goes back much further than that.
 
 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:24.999
 Since long before the
 dawn of recorded history,
 
 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:29.999
 we\'ve been trying to understand the world around
 us and we\'ve constantly turned to the sky
 
 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:34.999
 for answers. By unlocking the keys
 to the stars, the sun and the moon
 
 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:39.999
 it was reasoned, we would
 learn more about the Earth.
 
 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:44.999
 So we remained every vigilant turning
 both our persistence and our technology
 
 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:49.999
 to the task at hand. But the
 conclusions have not always been
 
 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:54.999
 particularly well thought out.
 
 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:59.999
 Two thousand years ago when Egyptian
 scholar by the name Eratosthenes
 
 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:04.999
 performed an experiment that he claimed proved the earth
 to be a sphere. However, there are serious doubts
 
 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:09.999
 about the accuracy of his data
 and his scientific procedures.
 
 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:14.999
 Dr. Leo Ferrari explains… Over
 the Eratosthenes\' experiment
 
 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:19.999
 is an experiment supposedly
 conducted in the first century,
 
 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:24.999
 whereby this ingenious person was
 supposed to have proved, I said,
 
 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:29.999
 \"The earth was a sphere of
 some 4,000 miles radius.\"
 
 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:34.999
 Eratosthenes one day noticed that the
 sun was directly overhead in Syene,
 
 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:39.999
 whereas he noticed that on the same day,
 at the same time, the sun made an angle
 
 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:44.999
 7.2 degree to the vertical at
 Alexandria which was about
 
 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:49.999
 some 530 miles away. How does
 Eratosthenes in the first century say,
 
 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:54.999
 \"No, what the sun was doing
 on the same day in two places
 
 00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:59.999
 which are 530 miles apart?\" When you take
 
 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:04.999
 all those same data knowing
 that the earth is flat,
 
 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:09.999
 in one place you have the sun directly
 over head and at another place
 
 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:14.999
 at the same time, at 530 miles
 away, let us suppose it does make
 
 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:19.999
 an angle of 7.2 degrees vertical,
 then we have a right angled triangle
 
 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:24.999
 which can be easily shown that the sun
 is a sum of 4,000 miles up in the sky.
 
 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:29.999
 These superficial even
 considerations show that
 
 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:34.999
 it\'s impossible, the whole thing,
 it\'s the story, A fairy story made up
 
 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:39.999
 and mindlessly repeated in textbooks.
 
 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:44.999
 Fortunately, not all scientific arguments
 are based on such questionable research.
 
 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:49.999
 The Greek astronomer, Ptolemy determined
 to everyone\'s satisfaction that
 
 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:54.999
 the Earth is flat, circular, and
 the central body in the universe.
 
 00:04:55.000 --> 00:04:59.999
 His theory went unchallenged for 1,200,
 
 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:04.999
 not surprising really, one
 need only look around.
 
 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:09.999
 However, the notion that it was some
 other shape gain some acceptance
 
 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:14.999
 during the Renaissance. These
 were in impoverished times
 
 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:19.999
 most writers, artists, and scientists
 could not support themselves
 
 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:24.999
 through their work. They depended on
 the patronage of the upper class.
 
 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:29.999
 Consequently, creative and original thinking
 men let their imaginations run rampant
 
 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:34.999
 in order to attract support. The
 fact that Leonardo da Vinci designed
 
 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:39.999
 a flying machine late in the 15th century
 confirms that the sky was the limit
 
 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:44.999
 to which scientists would go
 to impress potential backers
 
 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:49.999
 and an examination of the shape
 of the earth was a popular theme.
 
 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:54.999
 In 1543, the Polish astronomer,
 Copernicus suggested the bizarre notion
 
 00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:59.999
 that the Earth is a round ball that
 circles the sun. But his book emphasized
 
 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:04.999
 it was only a hypothesis. He
 further avoided controversy
 
 00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:09.999
 by withholding the book for 13 years and
 then by dying, on the day it was published.
 
 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:14.999
 Edmond Halley the highly
 esteemed British astronomer
 
 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:19.999
 best known for the comet named after him proposed that
 the Earth is made up of several concentric spheres
 
 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:24.999
 each supporting life placed inside one another
 in the manner of a Chinese box puzzle.
 
 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:29.999
 Marshall B. Gardner however
 
 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:34.999
 insisted that the Earth is completely hollow
 except for a small sun that lights the interior.
 
 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:43.000
 [music]
 
 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:49.999
 The argument for all practical purposes came to an end
 when the Church of England was established by law
 
 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:54.999
 during the 16th century. They rejected
 many laws of the ancient Catholic Church
 
 00:06:55.000 --> 00:06:59.999
 and to appear forward
 thinking, they embrace
 
 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:04.999
 many radical scientific notions prevalent at the
 time including Copernicus\' Round Earth Theory.
 
 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:09.999
 With this endorsement, the theory
 found its way into the schools
 
 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:14.999
 which were then largely controlled by the
 Church. It has remained there to this day
 
 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:19.999
 and many children have
 accepted it without question.
 
 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:24.999
 Andrea Barnes was not one of those children.
 Born into an Ontario farming family
 
 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:29.999
 in 1898, Andrea was a bright
 child who spent much of her time
 
 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:34.999
 learning about the world around her.
 She was inquisitive and precocious
 
 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:39.999
 and much to her teacher\'s dismay she fervently
 believe the global earth concept was nonsensical
 
 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:44.999
 and easily refuted. Many scientists agree
 with her and are amassing evidence
 
 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:49.999
 to carry on her work. There\'s all
 kinds of proofs right around you
 
 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:54.999
 that show that the Earth is flat. A
 very simple one to think of is that
 
 00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:59.999
 we use plumb bobs to uh… build buildings. In
 other words, to get the wall of the building
 
 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:04.999
 going straight down, you\'ll take a string with a heavy
 weight hanging from it and you make the building
 
 00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:09.999
 follow that string. That plumb bob will
 point to the center of round Earth.
 
 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:14.999
 That means that if you imagine that this… this was the
 correct Earth, you can imagine a plumb bob held here
 
 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:19.999
 would point in that direction and plumb bob
 held here would point in that direction.
 
 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:24.999
 That means the buildings would be
 bigger on the top than at the bottom.
 
 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:29.999
 It would also mean that boats would
 constantly be sailing downhill.
 
 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:34.999
 And invariably, in any discussion
 about the shape of the Earth,
 
 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:39.999
 the first argument used in support of its
 rotundity is that as ship sail out to sea,
 
 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:44.999
 the tops of their masts are
 visible longer than the hull.
 
 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:49.999
 The fact is of course that the light rays from the lower
 part of the ship are no longer reaching the shore.
 
 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:54.999
 When we consider this, (inaudible)
 authority as Einstein postulated
 
 00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:59.999
 and indeed proved that light rays bend
 deceptively in gravitational fields,
 
 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:04.999
 it should not be surprising that the light
 rays that from the lower parts of the ship
 
 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:09.999
 do not succeed in reaching the shore are
 incapable of entering the eye of an observer
 
 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:14.999
 and so they think the part of the ship
 (inaudible) light rays come is not seen.
 
 00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:19.999
 [sil.]
 
 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:24.999
 But it was hundreds of years before Einstein\'s
 time when explorers likes Sir Francis Drake
 
 00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:29.999
 and Ferdinand Magellan were pushing out the
 boundaries of the known world and it wasn\'t easy.
 
 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:34.999
 As they ventured further and further from established
 trade routes, the fear of coming to the edge of the world
 
 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:39.999
 and falling off became a very real one.
 
 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:44.999
 Sailors became increasingly apprehensive
 about joining such an expedition.
 
 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:49.999
 So Copernicus\' notion that the Earth was a ball you
 couldn\'t fall off of was readily embraced by businessmen.
 
 00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:54.999
 And when Magellan\'s crew claim to
 have circum navigated the globe
 
 00:09:55.000 --> 00:09:59.999
 in 1522, it was seen as a new
 piece in the scientific puzzle,
 
 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:04.999
 but more importantly it was seen as a strong
 psychological boost for free enterprise.
 
 00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:09.999
 It\'s also been seen as a
 huge publicity stunt.
 
 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:14.999
 [sil.]
 
 00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:19.999
 The sailor thinks that he\'s traveling
 around the Earth this way,
 
 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:24.999
 when in effect he\'s traveling
 around the Earth this way
 
 00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:29.999
 and he\'s creating a circle. He\'s… he\'s
 moving in a continuous direction around.
 
 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:34.999
 He goes through the various parts of the circle and he
 comes back where he start from, so around this way.
 
 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:39.999
 Does running around your neighborhood
 proved that the neighborhood is round?
 
 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:44.999
 By the time Andrea was in
 her teens, her brother Andy
 
 00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:49.999
 had already decided to go into the
 transportation business and many of her friends
 
 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:54.999
 had turned to nursing as a vocation.
 
 00:10:55.000 --> 00:10:59.999
 But Andrea devoted her time to exploring
 the world around her and to questioning.
 
 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:04.999
 She was vehemently opposed to the use
 of globes in schools and formed a group
 
 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:09.999
 to protest what she referred to
 as a load of old codswallop.
 
 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:14.999
 They demonstrated in a
 manner they felt symbolic.
 
 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:19.999
 But Andrea soon realized the
 only way people would listen was
 
 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:24.999
 if she made a trip to the edge and brought
 back proof. And so on her 16th birthday,
 
 00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:29.999
 she set off across the snowy deserts
 of Antarctica with little more
 
 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:34.999
 than a borrowed pair of skis.
 However, like Marcellus
 
 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:39.999
 some 300 years earlier she was
 unprepared for the harsh conditions
 
 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:44.999
 and was soon forced to turn back. She tried
 to raise money for a larger expedition,
 
 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:49.999
 but her course was overshadowed
 by the outbreak of World War I
 
 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:54.999
 and it became more important to worry about maintaining
 one stake in the world than arguing over its shape.
 
 00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:59.999
 [music]
 
 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:04.999
 Although they never met,
 Andrea\'s mentor was this man,
 
 00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:09.999
 Samuel Birley Rowbotham, better known
 throughout the scientific community
 
 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:14.999
 as Parallax. In 1881, he
 had published this book,
 
 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:19.999
 \'Earth not a Globe.\' Outlining dozens of
 experiments performed over many years,
 
 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:24.999
 it quickly became the standard
 authority for antigloburalists.
 
 00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:29.999
 Perhaps the most significant experiments
 
 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:34.999
 were those carried out on a canal
 known as the Old Bedford Level,
 
 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:39.999
 located in Cambridgeshire, England, the canal is perfectly
 straight over an uninterrupted six mile stretch.
 
 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:44.999
 While there, Parallax
 conducted many experiments
 
 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:49.999
 all towards one conclusion to prove that
 the surface of the water in the canal
 
 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:54.999
 was indeed perfectly flat.
 
 00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:59.999
 In one experiment, a boat carrying a
 flag rode from one bridge to another
 
 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:04.999
 six miles away. An
 observer with a telescope
 
 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:09.999
 placed eight inches above the surface of the water found
 that the flag and the boat were distinctly visible
 
 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:14.999
 throughout the entire distance.
 If the Earth is a sphere
 
 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:19.999
 with the circumference of 25,000 miles,
 then over a distance of six miles,
 
 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:24.999
 the second bridge should mathematically
 be 16 feet below the observer\'s eye line.
 
 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:29.999
 [music]
 
 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:34.999
 But in spite of the mathematical evidence, any
 further attempts to restore belief in the flat Earth
 
 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:39.999
 seem doomed by one of the supposed great
 moments in modern scientific achievement.
 
 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:48.000
 [sil.]
 
 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:04.999
 At last, after thousands of years
 of uncertainty, man was able to get
 
 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:09.999
 far enough away from the earth to have a good
 look at it in all its resplendent beauty.
 
 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:14.999
 It did appear curved and photographs
 were brought back for all to see.
 
 00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:19.999
 However, according to experts these
 photographs are much less conclusive
 
 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:24.999
 than one might think. Einstein told us that
 light actually is attracted by gravity.
 
 00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:29.999
 In other words, the path of light is not
 straight in a strong gravitational field.
 
 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:34.999
 So uh… astronauts looking at the
 Earth uh… see a curved Earth,
 
 00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:39.999
 but what they don\'t realize is… is
 that it\'s not the Earth that\'s curved,
 
 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:44.999
 it\'s the light taking a curved path from the earth
 because of the strong gravitational field of the Earth
 
 00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:49.999
 that makes the Earth look curved. So you\'re
 saying that those photographs from space
 
 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:54.999
 that the Apollo Mission brought back don\'t
 represent the earth as it really is?
 
 00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:59.999
 Of course they represent the Earth as
 it really is as seen by curved light
 
 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:04.999
 and so those photographs from
 space are entirely correct
 
 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:09.999
 and it\'s just that what has to be taken into
 account when we take data from those photographs
 
 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:14.999
 is that light traveling through
 space is curved by gravity
 
 00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:19.999
 and so it\'ll make straight things appear curved. And
 you know it also make curve things appear straight.
 
 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:24.999
 So you have to be very careful when you use light to
 measure things in a… in a very high gravitational field.
 
 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:29.999
 They\'re going up and the astronaut thinks
 he\'s leveling off this way going around,
 
 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:34.999
 but in effect he\'s leveling off this
 way and he goes around in a circle,
 
 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:39.999
 this, like so. The farther out he goes,
 
 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:44.999
 the less he sees of the Earth. He makes a bigger
 circle, he can make as big a circle as he like
 
 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:49.999
 and which is in effect exactly the same as if he was
 going around the world this way and going out farther,
 
 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:54.999
 he makes a bigger… bigger, a larger orbit.
 
 00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:59.999
 Through time lapse photography,
 the velocity of these clouds
 
 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:04.999
 has been dramatically increased. While they
 were actually drifting over the mountains
 
 00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:09.999
 at approximately 27 miles per hour,
 they now have the appearance of
 
 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:14.999
 moving at well over 100, four
 times their normal speed.
 
 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:19.999
 If the clouds were stationary and the Earth was
 revolving underneath them, this is how it would appear
 
 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:24.999
 if the Earth was spinning at 100
 miles per hour. Yet we\'re told that
 
 00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:29.999
 the Earth is spinning at
 ten times that speed.
 
 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:34.999
 Consider this, those who maintain
 that the Earth is a globe that spin
 
 00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:39.999
 suggest that people standing at the
 equator are being whirled around
 
 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:44.999
 at approximately 1,000 miles an hour. They further
 maintain that the Earth is spinning around the sun
 
 00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:49.999
 at a speed of 67,000 miles per hour
 
 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:54.999
 and that our sun is supposedly racing
 around the center of our galaxy
 
 00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:59.999
 at some 600,000 miles per hour.
 
 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:04.999
 And yet, you and I both know that on many days it\'s
 possible to stand outside without a single hair
 
 00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:09.999
 being messed up by the breeze. You put
 your hand outside a… a window of… of a car
 
 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:14.999
 which is going even at 80 kilometers per hour, terrific
 wind goes blasting by and pushes your hand back,
 
 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:19.999
 imagine putting your hand outside the window of
 a car that\'s going 1,600 kilometers per hour,
 
 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:24.999
 it would just take your hand right off.
 With a sphere of a 4,000 miles radius
 
 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:29.999
 being a… a spun round once every 24 hours, a
 little bit of calculations will show that
 
 00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:34.999
 that person there is being spun
 around at about a 1,000 miles an hour
 
 00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:39.999
 and he doesn\'t know it? I mean,
 this is obvious nonsense.
 
 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:44.999
 You\'re going in a merry-go-round and it
 goes I doubt more than ten miles an hour
 
 00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:49.999
 and you get off all dizzy, you mean to tell me
 that people can be spun around as something of
 
 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:54.999
 approximately a 1,000 miles an hour and not know it,
 why? If this is so, this whole room that we\'re in
 
 00:17:55.000 --> 00:17:59.999
 is supposedly being spun around at something
 of approximately that order of speed
 
 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:04.999
 and we don\'t know it? There\'s all kinds of evidence
 for the phenomena what\'s called Continental Drift.
 
 00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:09.999
 This means that the… the
 continents are able to move
 
 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:14.999
 as if they\'re floating on a fluid.
 Now if the Earth is… is spherical
 
 00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:19.999
 and if its spinning can any… anybody knows that if
 this is spinning very… very… very first like that,
 
 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:24.999
 that the continents should all
 be located at the equator
 
 00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:29.999
 because centrifugal force would move the
 continents from the poles to the middle.
 
 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:34.999
 One of the real big problems that it
 maybe a little bit easier to understand,
 
 00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:39.999
 sound doesn\'t travel nearly that first.
 
 00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:44.999
 So for example, if you\'re at the equator
 and you wanted shout to warn somebody,
 
 00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:49.999
 it\'s quite possible they could never
 hear you because if you are shouting,
 
 00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:54.999
 say the Earth is spinning in this direction
 and you\'re shouting in that direction,
 
 00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:59.999
 the sound could never catch up to the person
 who\'s of course being carried away by the Earth.
 
 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:04.999
 In October of 1929, Andrea
 again tried to focus
 
 00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:09.999
 the world\'s attention on the controversy
 by proving the notion the Earth spins
 
 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:14.999
 to be absolute nonsense. It was reasoned that
 if a dirigible was to go aloft in England
 
 00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:19.999
 and hold itself perfectly static
 then by the accepted theory,
 
 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.999
 the Earth should rotate underneath it and New York
 should come into view some four or five hours later.
 
 00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:29.999
 [music]
 
 00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:34.999
 In fact, England was never lost form view.
 The dirigible eventually ran low on fuel
 
 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:39.999
 and had to land. Andrea insisted
 she had made her point.
 
 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:44.999
 But New York wasn\'t paying attention
 that day. The stock market crash
 
 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.999
 monopolized the headlines then
 and for some time to come.
 
 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:54.999
 Andrea had again been upstaged.
 Instead of going
 
 00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:59.999
 spinning around… around this way and
 going around, it goes up and down.
 
 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.999
 Now when the Earth is up
 here and this is the sun,
 
 00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:09.999
 no rays, dark. The Earth
 is down here, daylight.
 
 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:14.999
 When the earth is here, relative to the sun
 
 00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.999
 and it\'s going up, sunset, into night.
 
 00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:24.999
 Reaches the top of its pattern,
 path, comes back down again
 
 00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.999
 and sunrise.
 
 00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:34.999
 [music]
 
 00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:39.999
 Now the interesting things happen at the ends
 of the Earth. You see, when you go from any car
 
 00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:44.999
 on a car trip from point A to point B,
 you\'re moving through what\'s called space
 
 00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.999
 and it takes time to get through
 space, but if… if there is space,
 
 00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.999
 there must also be non-space. It\'s kind of like
 saying, \"If there is wet, there must be dry,\"
 
 00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.999
 you can\'t have one without
 the other, it\'s obvious.
 
 00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.999
 So when you get the end of the pizza model of
 the Earth, you\'re actually moving from space
 
 00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
 into non-space and you can move
 through non-space in no time.
 
 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.999
 So it takes time to move through space, but
 it takes no time to move through non-space.
 
 00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:19.999
 So a lot of things are affected by this.
 For example, satellites,
 
 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.999
 as they cross the Earth, they will
 then go into this non-space region,
 
 00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:29.999
 they will instantly then be able to reappear back
 where they started by taking a non-space route.
 
 00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.999
 The moon does this, the sun does
 this and stars even do this
 
 00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.999
 at a very… very slow rate moving from space
 into non-space, then reappearing back
 
 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.999
 where they started from. This is
 due to probably of reflectivity
 
 00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.999
 and complementarity that is
 a well-known phenomenon.
 
 00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.999
 [music]
 
 00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.999
 By November of 1938,
 
 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.999
 Andrea was prepared for her second attempt
 to reach the edge. A consortium of financers
 
 00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.999
 were providing her with the plane and a large
 enough crew to make a legitimate go of it.
 
 00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.999
 And so once again, an opportunistic
 Andrea found herself in Antarctica
 
 00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.999
 and once again fate was against her.
 
 00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.999
 A freak spring blizzard
 took them by surprise.
 
 00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
 They were unable to leave base camp
 much less make a trip to the edge.
 
 00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
 The entire expedition was
 very nearly wiped out.
 
 00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
 [music]
 
 00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.999
 That was the last attempt Andrea made
 
 00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.999
 until 23 years later when she set
 off alone by snowmobile in 1961.
 
 00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
 Until recently, that was
 the end of the story.
 
 00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
 [music]
 
 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
 Early this year, a researcher
 stationed in Antarctica
 
 00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
 to study weather patterns, found a
 snowmobile partially buried in a snow bank.
 
 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
 It had run out of fuel and there
 were no signs of Andrea anywhere.
 
 00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
 But he did find these, a camera and a note.
 
 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
 The note says only, \"I have been there,
 
 00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
 the debate finally comes to
 an end.\" signed Andrea B.
 
 00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
 It had survived the frozen
 elements for nearly 30 years.
 
 00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
 Unfortunately, the researcher inadvertently
 opened the camera exposing the film inside,
 
 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
 any pictures were lost and Ms.
 Barnes\' trip is still very much
 
 00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
 shrouded in mystery. There was no
 description of what she had seen
 
 00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
 or how far away it was. But if
 we are to believe the note,
 
 00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
 then Andrea Barnes was very likely
 the first person in history
 
 00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:05.000
 to visit the edge of the Earth.
 
 00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
 What you don\'t know you
 eliminate and that is…
 
 00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
 that\'s my opinion is what the… the globular
 Earth theories have done, they just eliminated
 
 00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
 what they didn\'t know. The more honest approach is the flat earth
 approach where we say, \"Well, we don\'t know what\'s at the ends,
 
 00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:35.000
 but… but the ends are there.\"
